Saturday, August 23, 2008

Timeline for 21st August, to 21:00

The information below is accurate to the best of our knowledge, but is subject to verification.

21 AUGUST

21:00 Russian troops once again fail to pullout as agreedRussia again delayed the pullout of its troops. According to the Commander of Russian Ground Forces, Army General Vladimir Boldirev, the process of withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Georgia will take 10 days. He declared that peacekeeping checkpoints will start operating from August 22nd and remaining Russian troops will pullout in the coming ten days.

19:30 Russian militaries release 10 soldiers out of 20, captured on 19th of August in Poti Port.

18:00 Russian military handed 62 Georgian civilian hostages to Georgian side. Government of Georgia claims 101 more civilians are kept by Russian side in Tskhinvali.

16:00 According to the Foreign Minister of Finland and the OSCE Chair in Office Alex Stubb, there is little evidence of Russian troops withdrawing.

Russia restricts the freedom of movement throughout territory of GeorgiaEmbassy of the Russian Federation to Georgia handed a Note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, according to which the Ministry of Defense of the RF must be in advance notified about any planned travel of all delegations and persons to Gori. The statement of Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers this as an attempt from Russian side to restrict the freedom of movement for the diplomatic corps throughout the territory of Georgia and serves as another proof of continued occupation of Georgian territory by the Russian armed forces.

15:00 Russians creating a buffer zoneAccording to Anatoly Nogovitsin,Ddeputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, Russian forces will establish two lines of checkpoints in “a security zone” in the vicinity of South Ossetia“. “The first line will include eight checkpoints across the line of zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. The second line – involving 10 checkpoints – will be set across the administrative border of South Ossetia. Total of 272 soldiers will be deployed on the eight checkpoints of the first line,” he declared, and added that there will be a buffer zone between these two lines. Nogovitsin did not give any other details or specifics about the exact area of the zone; however he said that the town of Gori would not be included in the zone.

11:00 Ambassador of France to Georgia Eric Fournier is being blocked near Gori by Russian troops on his way from Satchkhere to Tbilisi and is prevented to continue his drive. He has been allowed to continue at 13:00.

10:30 Russian troops dig entrenchments in Poti

• Russian occupants start digging entrenchments in Poti. Russian `BMP` armored tanks and `URAL` trucks are located at the Nabadi territory at the entrance of the city